Jack McMillan won the men’s 400m freestyle for Great Britain at the European Short Course Championships in Poland, as Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen finished third.

McMillan, an Olympic and world champion in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay, claimed the gold medal ahead of Germany’s Lukas Martens.

Wiffen took bronze for Ireland in his first appearance since he had surgery to remove his appendix in August.

The Olympic and world champion in 800m freestyle set the fastest time in the heats with a time of 3:37.04, but had to settle for third in the final.

“Honestly, I’m really happy. Taking that long out of the water and having that surgery process and then having to come back and be at my best again and all the stuff moving towards California, it’s amazing to be back on the podium,” Wiffen said after the race.

“I’m a little bit gutted because I died a bit as I was like ‘we may as well just go for the world record’ because we were so close, but it was a great race.”

It emerged earlier this year that Wiffen intends to spend much of his time training in California, having left Loughborough University’s programme.

In a thrilling race on Tuesday, McMillan beat Martens to gold by just 0.18 seconds, and Wiffen was just 0.69 seconds off his former team-mate.

McMillan, from Northern Ireland, used to swim for Ireland but changed to represent Great Britain in 2022.

After helping Team GB to Olympic gold in the men’s 4x200m freestyle in Paris, he enjoyed a repeat at the World Championships in Singapore in July.

In Tuesday’s tight final, Great Britain’s Duncan Scott finished in seventh place.

Wiffen will return to the pool on Wednesday for the 1500m heats and will compete in the 800m on Friday.

McMillan will look to add to his 400m gold when he races in the 200m heats on Wednesday and the 100m heats on Friday.

Ireland’s Ellie McCartney finished fifth in the semi-final of the women’s 100m breaststroke. She was eighth fastest overall and will now compete in the final on Wednesday.